After enacting a year-long ban on industrial hemp farming in Sutter County, local officials and community members found compromises that may allow some grows to continue during the moratorium.
Sutter County supervisors are expected to discuss and vote on the proposed changes later this month. The ordinance was drafted for consideration for the Thursday, April 10 meeting — moved from Tuesday due to the coinciding ceremony for fallen Marysville officer Osmar Rodarte — but will now wait until later this month to give adequate time for public notice, said Steve Smith, county administrator.
Pass or fail, a long-term decision on the county’s industrial hemp program still looms.
Supervisors in January extended the emergency ordinance, which halts hemp production in the county through Dec. 16, while officials weigh the fate of the cannabis-related plant and fledgling industry in Sutter County. The county, which banned marijuana cultivation, had allowed for hemp farming and processing from 2019 until first passing the emergency ordinance in December, although processing never took off as anticipated, officials have said.
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The temporary ban followed months of complaints from residents about the strong marijuana-like smell consuming the small town of Sutter and concerns from local officials, ranging from school superintendents to the district attorney and agricultural commissioner.
“It was an eye-opener, a bit, to see the challenges that our ag commissioner and community have been dealing with,” said Tyler Tamagni, a Sutter County hemp farmer, at a supervisors meeting in March. “But after discussions with the stakeholders and identifying the key problems that have come up over the past six years, we feel like we have come up with some great solutions to all the issues.”
New hemp requirements
The new proposal designates county land at least 2.5 miles from “sensitive receptors,” like schools and churches, or incorporated city lines, eligible for outdoor hemp farming. The ordinance would still ban growing hemp in pots or “hoop houses.”
Based on a county map of recently licensed grows, those changes would allow two fields in the western part of the county to operate, while prohibiting grows from returning to fields surrounding Sutter, the small unincorporated town from which many complaints of an overwhelming hemp odor originated last year.
All or part of two fields licensed in the southern part of the county would apparently be affected by a half-mile buffer zone around residences added in the revised ordinance.
The 2.5-mile buffer also applies to the boundaries of Sutter Pointe, a long-planned series of housing developments at the southern tip of the county, where construction of the first phase of housing is expected to start soon and complete in the coming years.
The changes also include up-front deposit amounts that license holders would pay toward fees the county charges to issue licenses and manage state hemp requirements, such as testing for THC levels. The county agricultural department has consistently lost money on its industrial hemp program since 2019, although the number of license holders and annual losses have decreased in recent years, according to a recent county report.
The size of the county’s hemp program fell considerably from its peak in 2020-21, when the county lost more than $117,000, spending more than $184,000 to manage its hemp farmers compared to about $67,000 in revenue.
Prior to the moratorium, the county had six licensed hemp growers, four of whom violated state regulations and are on corrective action plans, according to a recent county report.
Supervisor Mike Ziegenmeyer, who represents the small town of Sutter and supported the current moratorium, said that he’s open-minded to the revisions reallowing hemp. However, he wants feedback about it from stakeholders, such as community members, the agricultural commissioner and Yuba-Sutter Farm Bureau.
“This is a whole new ordinance now,” he said. “I don’t know where they sit now.”
Growers find hope
Luke Wilson and Tamagni have been farming hemp together since it was first allowed in Sutter County. They’re among several local growers who have said they’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars building their hemp operations in recent years.
After the moratorium was extended through this year, Wilson and Tamagni began contacting and working with local officials to reach some of the compromises included in the revision, Wilson said.
“It was a significant blow to our business,” he added.
They reached deals to grow 500 acres of hemp before the moratorium first went into effect, he said. Now, to farm that acreage of hemp in Sutter County this year, they’ll need to begin germinating plants in May, to then plant them in mid- to late-June.
“It’s getting pretty pretty close to crunch time for us now,” Wilson said.
He said that a compromise exists between the hemp rules of the past and an outright ban. He and Tamagni farm crops other than hemp and have operations in Butte County, and may also grow in neighboring Colusa County this year, Wilson said. Still, they believe in the crop’s long-term potential and hold out hope for making it last in Sutter County.
“We feel that the farm land in Sutter County and the row crop ground here is worth fighting for,” Wilson said.
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
